Mercenary (band)
Mercenary is a melodic death metal band from Denmark, that was formed in 1991. Although they are usually labelled as a power metal band, they used aspects of thrash metal in their earlier work. Biography Mercenary formed in Aalborg, Denmark in 1991 as the brainchild of Henrik "Kral" Andersen. The band name was taken from a lyric in the Slayer song, "Ghosts of War". After the release of two demos, Domicile (1993) and Gummizild (1994), they were able to sign with Black Day Records, and released a four-song EP, Supremacy (1996). In 1997, they were signed to the Danish label Serious Entertainment, and in 1998 they released their full-length debut, First Breath. In 2002, the band decided to expand their sound with the addition of pianist Morten Sandager, who greatly contributed with his keyboard as well as his brother Mikkel, who helped expand their songs with vocals into their songs. This new line-up added new dimensions to their sound, blending more melody into their more aggressive heaviness. That year, Mercenary played at the ProgPower music festival in the United States and released their second album Everblack. It was after this that the band fired drummer Rasmus Jacobsen, thinking he invested too little time into Mercenary and too much into other projects. During this time, guitarist Signar Petersen also left the band, due to personal reasons. Two old friends of Kral’s (drummer Mike Park Nielson, whom he had met in 1993 at a concert in Copenhagen, and Martin Buus Pedersen, whom Kral knew since he was seventeen years old and working in a music store, when Martin was testing a guitar) would soon fill in the two spots, and with this new lineup, Mercenary were signed to Century Media Records. In 2004, Mercenary released their third full-length album, 11 Dreams. This proved to be their most commercially successful album, earning much international attention from fans and critics alike. That year, Mercenary toured as a supporting act for Evergrey, and then later with Brainstorm who were on their first headlining tour in Europe. They also played on the 16th Wacken Open Air in 2005, and supported Nevermore on a European tour later that year. At the end of March 2006, that the band announced that Kral left the band. Mikkel Sandager said in an interview that Kral’s departure was due to “being away from his family and...trying to make it with the band for 15 years. I think that he simply got tired of trying and trying." The band went about writing and recording their fourth full-length as a five-piece, with Mikkel Sandager performing all vocals, and the album’s producer Jacob Hansen handling bass duties. On April 7, 2006 the band finished the recording at Jacob Hansens Studios. Shortly after this, the band managed to employ bassist/vocalist René Pedersen to fill in the void left by Kral. At the May 19 and 20, 2006, Saegfestival (held in Greding, Germany), Mercenary had their first live performance with Pedersen. It was at this show that they played "Soul Decision", a song from their upcoming fourth album. On August 1, 2006, Mercenary released a compilation of their early demos, titled Retrospective, and on August 22, their new album, The Hours that Remain, was released. In September 2006, Mercenary joined numerous other bands such as Evergrey, Epica, and Jørn Lande in the ProgPower USA festival. It was there that they covered Pantera's "Cowboys from Hell" at the request of the show's promoter. On October 21, 2007 they announced a follow up album to The Hours that Remain was being recorded and produced. On December 12, 2007 the band announced on their Myspace page that the new album is complete. Eight days later, the band announced the title of the new album to be Architect of Lies. It was released on March 25, 2008. November 11, 2009, it was announced that Mikkel, Morten, and Mike had left the band. According to Jakob in a press statement: "we no longer share the same vision and enthusiasm about the direction and the future of the band". On November 23, 2009, the band announced via Facebook, that a new complete line-up had been established. On December 23, 2010, the band released a song from their upcoming album, Metamorphosis. They released the complete album Metamorphosis in 2011. On July 26, 2013, the band released their studio album 'Through Our Darkest Days'. Band members Current *Jakob Mølbjerg - rhythm guitar (1994-present) *Martin Buus - lead guitar (2002-present), keyboards, backing vocals (2009-present) *René Pedersen - bass guitar, unclean vocals (2006-present), clean vocals (2009-present) *Peter Mathiesen - drums (2011-present) Former * Jakob Johnsen - drums (1991-1993) * Hans Jørgen Andersen - rhythm guitar (1991-1994) * Andreas W. Hansen - bass (1991-1994) * Nikolaj Brinkman - lead guitar (1994-2000) * Signar Petersen - lead guitar (2000-2002) * Rasmus Jacobsen - drums (1993-2002) * Henrik "Kral" Andersen - bass (1994-2006), unclean vocals (1991-2006), lead guitar (1991-1993) * Mike Park Nielsen - drums (2002-2009) * Morten Sandager - keyboard (2002-2009) * Mikkel Sandager - clean vocals (2002-2009) * Morten Løwe - drums (2009-2011) Timeline ImageSize =width:800 height:auto barincrement:25 PlotArea =left:120 bottom:100 top:0 right:0 Alignbars =justify DateFormat =mm/dd/yyyy Period =from:01/01/1991 till:12/12/2015 ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1991 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1991 TimeAxis =orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend =orientation:vertical position:bottom Colors= id:clean value:red legend:Clean_Vocals id:unclean value:claret legend:Unclean_Vocals id:backing value:yellow legend:Backing_Vocals id:lead value:teal legend:Lead_Guitar id:rhythm value:green legend:Rhythm_Guitar id:bass value:blue legend:Bass id:keys value:purple legend:Keyboards id:drums value:orange legend:Drums id:studio value:black legend:Studio_Albums id:other value:gray(0.5) legend:Demos/EPs id:bars value:gray(0.95) LineData= at:06/01/1993 color:other layer:back at:06/01/1994 color:other layer:back at:06/01/1996 color:other layer:back at:01/12/1998 color:black layer:back at:02/01/2002 color:other layer:back at:03/11/2002 color:black layer:back at:08/23/2004 color:black layer:back at:08/21/2006 color:black layer:back at:03/17/2008 color:black layer:back at:02/25/2011 color:black layer:back at:06/26/2013 color:black layer:back BackgroundColors= bars:bars BarData= bar:Mikkel text:"Mikkel Sandager" bar:Kral text:"Henrik Andersen" bar:Nikolaj text:"Nikolaj Brinkman" bar:Signar text:"Signar Petersen" bar:Martin text:"Martin Buus" bar:Hans text:"Hans Jørgen Andersen" bar:Jakob text:"Jakob Mølbjerg" bar:Morten text:"Morten Sandager" bar:Andreas text:"Andreas W. Hansen" bar:Rene text:"René Pedersen" bar:Jakob2 text:"Jakob Johnsen" bar:Rasmus text:"Rasmus Jacobsen" bar:Mike text:"Mike Park Nielsen" bar:Morten2 text:"Morten Løwe" bar:Peter text:"Peter Mathiesen" PlotData = width:10 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4) bar:Mikkel from:01/01/2002 till:11/11/2009 color:clean bar:Kral from:01/01/1991 till:12/01/1993 color:lead bar:Kral from:01/01/1991 till:04/20/2006 color:unclean width:2.5 bar:Kral from:12/01/1993 till:03/01/1994 color:unclean bar:Kral from:03/01/1994 till:04/20/2006 color:bass bar:Nikolaj from:01/01/1994 till:01/01/2000 color:lead bar:Signar from:01/01/2000 till:09/01/2002 color:lead bar:Martin from:09/01/2002 till:end color:lead bar:Martin from:11/23/2009 till:end color:backing width:2.5 bar:Martin from:11/23/2009 till:end color:keys width:7.5 bar:Hans from:01/01/1991 till:03/01/1994 color:rhythm bar:Jakob from:03/01/1994 till:end color:rhythm bar:Morten from:01/01/2002 till:11/11/2009 color:keys bar:Andreas from:01/01/1991 till:03/01/1994 color:bass bar:Rene from:04/20/2006 till:end color:bass bar:Rene from:04/20/2006 till:end color:unclean width:2.5 bar:Rene from:11/23/2009 till:end color:clean width:5.5 bar:Jakob2 from:01/01/1991 till:12/01/1993 color:drums bar:Rasmus from:12/01/1993 till:08/01/2002 color:drums bar:Mike from:08/01/2002 till:11/11/2009 color:drums bar:Morten2 from:11/23/2009 till:06/01/2011 color:drums bar:Peter from:06/01/2011 till:end color:drums Discography Studio albums * First Breath (1998) * Everblack (2002) * 11 Dreams (2004) * The Hours that Remain (2006) * Architect of Lies (2008) * Metamorphosis (2011) * Through Our Darkest Days (2013) EPs * Supremacy (1996) Compilations * Mercenary (2006) Demos * Domicile (1993) * Gummizild (1994) Videography * Firesoul (from 11 Dreams) * My World is Ending (from The Hours that Remain) * Isolation (from Architect of Lies) * The Endless Fall (from Architect of Lies) References External links *Official Mercenary website *Mercenary Myspace Category:Century Media Records artists Category:Danish death metal musical groups Category:Danish melodic death metal musical groups Category:Danish power metal musical groups Category:Danish progressive metal musical groups Category:Danish thrash metal musical groups Category:Musical groups established in 1991 Category:Musical quartets Category:1991 establishments in Denmark